Sky Candy: Southern Lights Over The Indian Ocean

Time for your daily dose of awesomeness from the ISS! Here’s a time-lapse video of the Aurora Australis photographed by Expedition 30 crew members on March 4, as the Station passed 240 miles (386 km) over the chilly waves of the southern Indian Ocean. Absolutely gorgeous!

This time-lapse represents about 8 minutes of real time compressed into about 40 seconds. During that time, the Station passed from over the Kerguelen Islands to over southern Australia.

Also known as the Desolation Islands, the Kerguelens are a volcanic archipelago located pretty much dead-center of the southern Indian Ocean. The cold, rocky islands are a district of France and home to seals, penguins and sea birds… and about 50 – 100 scientists and researchers.

As the ISS passes over such remote locations, its crew gets a stunning view of the southern lights that shimmer and dance high above the scientists, seals and sea birds, but far below the Station.

Video courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. Via The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.